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Originally Posted by Slava
To me this is exactly where it's a witch hunt as opposed to actual public policy. Between the law society dues and flight to South Africa (which was not only questionable, but paid back), we're looking at $49,000. Have a quick look through Klein's track record, or Stelmach. These guys were flying their wives all over the place and no one seemed to have a worry at all. I'm job making a two wrongs make a right argument here though. It just seems that for some reason people are holding Redford to a different standard. I'm not sure why that is really.
If you listen to people (like my wife) she thinks it's gender. When Peter McKay has a helicopter pick him up to go to a lobster boil I think it gets laughed off as a "boys will be boys" sort of thing. Like, yeah, that's a pretty ignorant thing to do, but kind of so ridiculous it's amusing. Redford uses government aircraft to attend a world leaders funeral that she once worked for and people are up in arms. To be honest I never really considered the gender angle because I think it's just wrong, but maybe there is something to it. For the most part these 'transgressions' seem so minor, and maybe we really are far more willing to cut slack to male leaders?
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I don't think it's a gender thing at all and more the fact that McKay and others at least had some tact. Redford was using private jets to holiday with her and her kid while Sylvan Lake and Calgary (her riding of all places) were in a state of disaster. I can guarantee Ralph Klein would have had a lot more tact and wouldn't have been flying to a Jasper resort for an entire weekend for supposedly 2 hours of meetings and back on an empty plane during such a situation. IMO you lose the benefit of the doubt when you show contempt for the people you were sworn in to represent.
When it comes to a guy like Klein or even Stelmach there isn't a lot of evidence to show that they at least didn't care about Albertans or didn't care about the cause while there is plenty of evidence that shows Redford not only didn't care about Albertans but thought she was above them. That's why lots of people loathe her and not necessarily because she was using taxpayer money to fund her lavish lifestyle. She simply isn't a good person end of story.